Whites bought their land, says Mosiuoa Lekota

COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota says white people who own land in SA bought it. So if the government wants their land‚ it must pay for it.

In an interview with TimesLIVE‚ Lekota explained why he believes the move to expropriate land without compensation is misplaced.

Lekota said the preamble of the Constitution clearly indicates SA does not belong to a group or a certain race‚ but to all who live in it.

He said the values enshrined in the Constitution are meant to redress the injustices of the past‚ but not by attempting to treat blacks as a superior race.

He rejected the view perpetuated by some political commentators that white people received land for free from the apartheid government‚ and should therefore not be compensated.

"I want to kill this myth that there are white families that were given land for free. That is not true. It was not given [to whites] for free. Never!

"Remember this is a capitalist society. You may have had some deals like the fraud we are experiencing in our time where government officials can be corrupt. You may have had something like that. But as a general rule‚ everybody had to buy the property that they have.

"I'm saying to you … go to any white family that you like. Show me a family that will not be able to show you a title deed for the land they bought.

"Go to the deeds office; check there‚ whether there is any property that was given free to anybody.… This is another thing you can help the public with. Check and see if you can find that Van Rooyen‚ Van Meulen who … was given land free‚" Lekota said.

He said if government needed land for development‚ there was already provision in the Constitution for expropriation‚ providing the state compensates owners.